TOYOTA STEALS A SOGGY ONE IN CHARLOTTE

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The fiftieth running of the World/Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway, nee Charlotte, was idiomatic of the corpse that used to be NASCAR.

The 600 was supposed to be the capstone of the greatest single day of Motorsports for the year. Instead, it failed to launch due to weather. Tuning in the next day, viewers saw a forgettable race to half-way on the prototypical 1.5 mile "cookie-cutter" oval that was dominated by the traitorous Joe Gibbs "Toyota Camry" FUNNYCar-of-Tomorrow aimed by the universally-loathed Kyle "Rowdy" Busch. A couple of dozen laps after the event was "official" in the apparently raisin-size minds of the NASCAR officials, it started raining again.

In a legendary display of short-sightedness, all but three cars on the lead lap pitted, gifting the eventual win to Toyota's David Reutimann -- the first lead lap team with enough common-sense not to stop under the rain caution.

A few observations about the "Coca-Cola 340 1/2"

1. To NASCAR and all of those folks who say "rain tires won't work" on ovals: Have you ever seen the Rolex 24 at Daytona? (Hint: Rain tires are often used on the "ROVAL" -- and the cars do not slide off of the banking in the rain).

Real men race in the rain. It's the same for all of the competitors.

Overpaid, overrated prima donnas, such as most of NASCAR's plastic-homogenized-scripted-stroker-ace "drivers," cower at the sight of mere sprinkles, whine about anything but "perfect" weather, and do silly "rain dances" to cheat the fans out of the racing they paid to see.

2. What a "Reutimann awakening" for all of those brain-dead crewchiefs from Hendrick and Roush who apparently forgot everyone was racing to half-way . . . .

Carl Edwards and FORD threw away the win by following Rowdy down into the pits when anyone with the Weather Channel should have figured out that the "24 Hours of Charlotte" race was OVER (except for the made-for-TV "drama" of waiting). At least Toyota had sense enough to leave one of their backmarkers out to STEAL THE WIN. Sadly, Jack Roush and Ford cannot figure out how to use their cars strategically . . . . (Thankfully Roush and his thoughtless crewchiefs weren’t in charge of beating the Japanese in WWII. )

3. Seemingly most of the Fox TV announce crew is beholden to Toyota in some way (ensuring about two hours of tedious, televised lobbying to "call" the race with a hideous Waltrip-owned Toyota "FunnyCar of Tomorrow" in the lead) Apparently there are no conflict-of-interest rules in the tiresome joke that has become NASCAR.

4. Fox TV has about the worst possible "rain delay" fill package. At times, a blue screen and white noise would have been better than the repetitive bilge pumped out by Waltrip, McReynolds and Co. Thankfully, Fox, Waltrip, Digger and the whole mess are about to go off-the-air until 2010 (and not a lap too soon).

5. Fox's 50th Anniversary "package" on Charlotte skipped from the mid-1960s until the 2000s. Short-sighted and weak.

All in all, the "COKE 340" was about as bad a "show" as NASCAR can deliver nowadays.